This article is presented wth the Gur Parsaad of Agam Agochar Anant Beyant Dhan Dhan Gur and Guru and you all.
Here is another small piece of divine wisdom which might help in understanding that age is a big factor for Naam Japna. It has a tremendous effect on your spiritual progress.
There is a gross misunderstanding amongst the masses about what age to start Naam Japna. Most people think that the time for Naam Japna is old age. They think that childhood and youth is not a good time for Naam Japna. They think that childhood is to enjoy schooling and playing. And the time of youth is to complete their education and get settled in life. And once everything has settled down, then retirement is the time for Naam Japna. That’s if they want to, but more likely they just lead a retired life of playing with the grand kids and so on.
To be honest, life never settles down. There is no physical event that happens when they can really sit back and relax. As long as they are drenched in the scum of Maya, life is a never ending puzzle. Look at your own life and analyze it. Childhood was eaten by youth. You didn’t even realize how or when that happened. Youth is eaten by old age which in turn is eaten by death. Your entire life is an ever changing phenomena. Change happens at every moment of your life. You never look the same as before.
During this process of change there is a continuous depletion of one thing which will never come back – the depletion of the wealth of time. The depletion of the wealth of your breath (Swaas). The depletion of the wealth of your own life. Life is due to the Atma (soul’s prescence in the body), it is the Amrit (Immortal God’s Lifeforce Energy). So in a real sense delpletion of life is the depletion of Amrit. With every moment this wealth is depleting and you are going closer to the physical death of your body. The body has to die. This body have been given to you with the great grace of the Almighty to :
- collect the Amrit and make yourself immortal,
- to do Bandgi and be one with Almighty,
- to get yourself relieved of this cycle of birth and death and achieve salvation,
- to realize your own self – self realization and discover the presence of God in your own self,
- to get yourself out of the loop of Maya (loop of reincarnation),
- to win over your mind,
- to win over the Maya,
- to get enlightened and come out of the darkness of the Kalyug (Age of Darkness),
- to sow the Naam and reap its unlimited rewards,
- to collect the biggest and highest eternal treasure of the Naam and merge in Naam,
- become Naam by yourself,
- to reach the Param Padvi and secure a place for yourself in the Dargah of Akal Purakh forever
- not waste this life merely in the worldly things.
As you age :
- it becomes more and more difficult to do Naam Japna,
- you become more and more drenched in the world of Maya,
- the net of Maya around you gets stronger and stronger,
- the scum of Maya gets more and more deeper around you,
- you get strangled by the shackles of Maya deeper and stronger,
- you are influenced by the five thieves and desires more and more.
Finally, by the time you become old and think, “Now I should start to work for spiritual progress,” you are very, very deep in the scum of Maya. That makes it very difficult for you to break the shackles of Maya.
Maya (Rajo and Tamo aspects) is the disease (Rog) and it makes the man diseased (Rogi). The effect of a whole life spent under the influence of Maya causes the old and aged body to deteriorate so much that it becomes a house of sicknesses. In old age, all these mental and bodily sicknesses keep you busy in just looking after your bodily requirements. You will never be able to concentrate on Naam Japna.
Inold age, the influence of Maya is so strong on your physical and mental health that it will become almost impossible to concentrate on Naam Japna. When the sickness becomes chronic it becomes very hard or difficult to cure it, and many a times it becomes incurable. It stays with the body until the end comes. So which is a wiser thing to do – to let the sickness become chronic or to work to cure it before it becomes chronic?
A new born child is totally unaware of the effect of the Maya and is completely healthy inside and out as far as spirituality is concerned. The Dassam Duaar (tenth gate) of a new born child is open and she is one with God until the Maya strikes her (around and after the age of two her sense of self and wants get stronger). After that happens then she starts to get drenched in the scum of Maya and continues to do so and develops all kinds of mental sicknesses with the age. Eventually these mental sicknesses (lust, anger, greed, worldy attachments, pride, hopes, wishes, desires, slander, gossip, cursing, vanity and thirst for power) become deeply entrenched. The mental sicknesses permeate her body, senses, actions and reactions. It effects her daily life and daily deeds. These mental sicknesses keep on building a dark scum of Maya around her and keep on dragging deeper by every breath in to the net of the Maya. These shackles of Maya become stronger and stronger with every breath. Eventually these sicknesses become chronic and are not easily curable. These mental sickness make her weaker mentally and physically. The organs of the body start to get effected by these mental sicknesses and become a source of bodily sicknesses. She becomes physically and mentally sick at all times. With a sick body and mind it becomes awfully difficult to do Bandgi (earning spirituality).
So what is the solution to the problem? What is the solution to keep yourself healthy spiritually and physically from birth to death? What is the way to keep yourself free of the mental and physical sicknesses all through your life? How can you lead a life that is :
- healthy and spiritual,
- full of eternal bliss,
- full of eternal joy and happiness,
- full of truth,
- serving the truth,
- delivering the truth,
- in Chad Di Kala (Spiritual Bliss),
- enjoying all the amenities of life,
- meeting your worldly and family responsibilities while achieving salvation,
- going to make you immortal and take you out of this cycle of birth and death?
There is only one solution and that is to nip the evil in the bud. The evil is Maya and the weapon to nip the Maya is Naam Japna and the bud is to do this from early childhood. However, it may sound impracticable but the truth is that prevention is better than cure. It is a lot easier to do Naam Japna at a young age. It becomes more and more difficult with age. When disease has not taken deep roots inside your body it will need only a small amount of Naam Japna medicine (Naam Daroo) to keep these mental sicknesses away. But in old age the dosage keeps on increasing. If not administered in early life it becomes unmanageable and so chronic that it becomes incurable.
As a child you are much more innocent and innocence is a great help in spiritual progress. With age innocence disappears and your own wisdom takes over. Innocence is divine wereas your own wisdom becomes an obstacle in your spiritual progress. As a child you are not into :-
- hatred and discrimination,
- the five thieves (anger, greed, lust, attachments and pride),
- hopes, wishes, desires, slander, gossip, cursing, vanity, thirst for power and so on.
So as a child your spiritual progress will be much faster than in old age. Due to the absence of these mental sicknesses, the Naam will go inside very easily and quickly within a very short period of time. Wereas the amount of effort increases tremendously as you get older.
So "NIP THE EVIL IN THE BUD" the earlier the better and easier. Never wait for retirement as being the time to Naam Japna. No, the younger the better and easier. We have seen it practically in our Sangat (congregation). The young kids go in to Smadhee (deep meditation) very fast whereas the older ones take much longer. Some of the young kids have gone into Smadhee the very moment they first came to the Sangat. However, most of the youngsters took a few weeks to get to that stage of Smadhee. But the old people never go into Smadhee.
A lot of people also worry about, “What will happen to my family if I start to do Naam Japna and dedicate myself to Seva (selfless service to others)?” This is nothing but a false illusion which keeps a large number of people away from doing Naam Japna. For those people we request very humbly that they read and understand the first verse of Sukhmani Sahib (Prayer of Peace). This explains the benefits of Naam Japna.
With Naam Japna you will start to reap all the benefits that are very kindly explained by Dhan Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Ji. With Naam Japna :-
- things will become easier for you,
- life will become more understandable and easy to handle,
- you will see a very good effect on the kids and family as well as friends,
- things will start to fall in place for you and so on.
Just do it now and start reaping the rewards right away. Encourage your family members and your children to do so too and let them also reap the rewards.
Dassan Das (Slave Of God’s Slaves)